Savion Aerospace is an Australian aircraft manufacturer whose mission is to introduce cleaner energy into aviation by creating tangible improvements to the customer experience while reducing operating costs.

They seek to address the energy transition in heavy transport by implementing a “infra-aircraft” business models, whereby the vehicle acts as energy infrastructure when parked, creating a second revenue stream which can offset the added costs to transition to clean energy.

This project aims to develop a proof of concept for the “infra-aircraft” business model with a regenerative fuel cell (RFC). By fitting a drone with an RFC (regenerative fuel cell) the team will experiment and demonstrate that an aviation device can produce hydrogen and then generate electricity when it is parked, showing the potential to unlock an additional revenue stream which would support the transition to zero-emissions aircraft.

The demonstration is intended to show that an RFC can both power a drone and act as a renewable energy storage device. On the ground, the RFC can generate hydrogen on the ground if it has access to a source of solar and water.  In flight, the RFC will generate power for the drone from the hydrogen created by the drone.  When landing at a separate site, the RFC will discharge the hydrogen as electricity to power a light bulb and then recharge and fly back to the original site.

The approach would allow the second revenue stream from producing and selling hydrogen to make the vehicles more profitable to operate, enabling them to qualify for infrastructure investment.  The vision is that the combination of increased profitability and new financing sources would aid the energy transition in heavy transport and achieve market penetration beyond the 1%-5% forecast in the Aviation White Paper.